There are so many questions about EFGT I decided to go back and compile some facts from past posts here on LCF in our EFGT threads. There is some info that Barry posted here and some quotes from CarolynF and some info from a variety of sites about lean body mass. I hope this will be helpful to all of us as we continue "on down our weigh" with EFGT.

The ratios to aim for are 10-15% carbs, 20-25% prot, 60-70% fat.

Quoted from a post of Barry Groves:
"The body can use either glucose or fats as a fuel. If it is used to using glucose and blood glucose falls too low, it will convert protein either from food or from muscle tissue.

If, on the other hand, you are on a low-carb, high-fat diet, and your body has gotten used to this, then it will use either dietary fats or body fats. Which is exactly what we want it to do.

Therefore, if you are on the conventional low-fat, low-calorie diet, protein intake is very important, as this will be used for glucose. On a high-fat diet, however, protein intake is not so important.

The problems come when people who are afraid of eating fat eat more protein while cutting down on fat.

There is one other consideration: Protein foods are expensive. Why eat more than you need?

I hope that makes sense"

Another Quote from an email in answer to a question Carolyn emailed him:

I think there is a misunderstanding here. There is no EFGT 2,000 calorie program. Perhaps I should look at a rewrite if this is unclear.

The average calorie intake is around 2,000 calories (women a bit less; men a bit more) so I used that amount as an example in a couple of places on page 217 to show how the ratios are arrived at. But on pages 24/25 I say don't count calories, eat until you are satisfied.

People do different amounts of work and exercise, need different amounts of energy, and so they need to eat different amounts. And, of course, women tend to eat less than men.

So, you wouldn't need to eat 2,000 calories if you have an office job. But, then you would probably need to eat more if you are a builder's labourer or a marathon runner. If an individual is satisfied and not hungry with 1,200 to 1,300 calories, that's fine.

The important point is that satisfaction. The way our bodies work is programmed by the last 2 million years of Ice Ages. Our ancestors lived from one good hunt to the next, and there must have been times when food was in short supply and they starved. Our bodies evolved the facility of storing energy in the form of body fat to tide them over. As far as your body is concerned, low-calorie dieting is starving. This programmes your body to store fat. This is why people who use low-calorie diets get progressively fatter. What you must do is eat properly -- without the periods of hunger -- so that your body loses the need to store fat.

But, if you want to lose the fat your body has already stored, then you must NOT eat more than you need. You might think that means counting calories. It doesn't. Your body will make allowances and, if you do eat too much, it can get rid of any excess, as long as what you are eating is the right food. That is fat. Both fat and protein in excess are excreted, not stored. But if you eat to excess and some of that excess is carbs, then that WILL be stored."

CarolynF Quotes from past posts:
"Basically this plan is similar to Atkins except for the fact it's not an
all you can eat protein plan. First you figure out your lean body weight..
then divide it by 2.2 (to get kilograms), then multiply it by 1 or 1.5 to get the correct amount of grams of protein that you should take in..Too much will
act like carbs.

The percentages are what Barry is interested in..plus eating animal fats, plus
coconut and olive oil.

10-15 percent carbs/ 20-25 percent protein/60-70 percent fat..and eat according to your appetite..Some days you might be hungrier than other days.

Barry doesn't eat fruit or grains..but that's up to you. Some people will have some bread, but you need to count it all..

It's a good idea to do ****** to get a sense of what you should be eating..and how much.

Most women will eat around 50-80 grams of protein. If someone is very athletic, they would eat toward the top of the numbers."

This way of eating is basically finding out your lean body weight..Google it and you will find several ways to figure it out..either by measuring or just
putting in a number..THEN, take your lean body weight (without fat) and
multiply that number by .6 to find how many grams of protein your body needs for the day..You can go up maybe 10 more grams..but don't overload
because too much protein will act like carbs..

The percentages for your daily foods should be 10-15 percent carbs/20-30
percent protein/60-70 percent fat. Use ****** and you will get a good idea of
what you should eat..And don't eat more protein than you should..

The very best way to "eat" is to have balanced meals with your proportions approximate..For example, you wouldn't eat all your protein at one meal..or carbs..or fat..so balance each meal out as well as you can..

If you get to dinner and you have only 30 grams of protein all day..don't have
45 grams all at once to make up for the difference..Because, we all know that
those extra 25 grams act like carbs..not a good thing.."

Barry says the best oil to have is olive oil and coconut oil...And he recommends that we eat the fat off meat..like hamburger, pork, etc..

60-70 percent fat is NOT like 90 percent fat..and it's not like we are chowing down on sticks of butter..because there is fat in eggs, meat, cheese..and added fat for veggies, coffee, and salads really CAN ADD UP..That's why ****** is so great..It "does the math" for us.."

Lean Body Mass Info

To figure Lean Body Mass:
1st.You get your body fat percentage from one of those charts.
Then 100% - BF% = "the rest of your body"
Then multiply your weight now by "the rest of your body"
And you get the % of lean body mass.

Figure out how much protein you need..by using your lean body mass..(not including the fat) and divide it by 2.2 to get the kilograms..then multiply it by 1 or 1.5 (men are higher)..

On the protein thing: Some people with more muscles can eat MORE protein to maintain their muscles..So, they might multiply their LBM by 1.3 or 1.4..to get a higher number.

My lean body weight is around 95 pounds (minus fat)..I would divide it by 2.2..would
give me 45 kilograms..Okay..then to find out how much protein I would need, I would
multiply that number by 1 or 1.5..so I would need 45 to 67 grams of protein per day to maintain muscle mass..Men need more.

Let me add this post I made earlier. It explains a lot about why higher fat, low carb, moderate protein is working so well for many of us....

"...when you eat protein and carbs, anything excess is converted to fat. Carbs are the worst when it comes to releasing insulin and getting your body to store fat. Protein isn't as bad, but eat too much protein and the body converts it to glycogen (sugar), which releases a bunch of insulin and again you get stored fat.

But, by eating enough fat (is it 60-75%??), your body gets the fuel it needs, but fat doesn't convert well to fat since you do not get that needed spike of insulin to put you in "store the fat" mode. Plus fat satisfies your appetite better than carbs or protein, so you are not likely to overeat. So, by eating fat you end up losing weight."

Or maybe it's this...

__________________"And so, may Evil beware and may Good dress warmly and eat plenty of fresh vegetables." - The Tick

All the foods you need, to provide your body with all the nutrients it
needs, and you with the pleasure you need, can be found in the meat,
cheese, dairy, fish, and fruit and vegetable departments of any supermarket.
You may have to add butter and other fats as meat today is bred so
lean as to be tough and tasteless. But even this is far healthier than the
junk that is beginning to be sold for the ‘low-carb’ market. And don’t be
afraid of eggs: they have a nearly perfect balance of nutrients, and are
excellent dietary sources of protein, vitamins, minerals and trace elements,
and essential fatty acids.

2. Reduce your intake of refined carbohydrates . . .

You can eat as much as you want of any meat, fish, poultry, cheese,
cream, butter, eggs – indeed anything that is high in proteins and fats and
low in carbohydrates.

You can eat as much as you like of green leafy vegetables:
cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, celery, and so on.

Although it is advisable to cut out altogether if possible some carbohydrate
foods, such as sugar and cereals, it is not necessary to stop eating
fruit and vegetables, merely to cut down on the sweeter and starchier
ones. It is necessary only to reduce the amount of them you eat so that
your total carbohydrate intake is no more than about 50-60 grams a day.

3. . . . but don’t reduce carbs too much

The object of eating this way is to reduce insulin levels in the blood by
changing your body from using glucose from carbs as an energy source
to using fats. To make the changeover, it is necessary to reduce your carb
intake, while increasing fat intake.

4. Replace the carbs mainly with fat, not protein (See Chapter 13)

The propaganda against dietary fat has been powerful and relentless
during the past twenty years. You may still be very frightened about
adding more fat to your diet, particularly if your doctor has told you that
you have a high cholesterol level. Don’t be. You will inevitably increase
the amount of protein in your diet to some extent but you should not
overdo it. For you to be healthy, your main source of energy with this way
of eating must be fat. A high-protein diet in which both carbs and fat are
restricted is probably the least healthy diet of all because your body will
continue to use glucose – which we don’t want – that it will make from
the protein, and it doesn’t like to do this except in an emergency. It
certainly isn’t healthy to use protein as a fuel long term.
5. Leave the fat on meat

6. Eat a high-protein breakfast

It is essential that you start the day in such a way that your energy levels
are sufficiently high that you will not want to snack between meals, and
your brain has a constant unvarying supply of energy.

7. If you are overweight, don’t try to lose more than 1 kilo (2
lb) a week

It is dangerous to lose weight too quickly, particularly if you are only
moderately overweight. Be patient: on this way of eating you may not
lose weight quickly, nor should you try to. If it took you ten or twenty
years to put the weight on, it is unrealistic to think you can lose it all
safely in a few weeks. Large weight losses are always followed by a
‘stall’ when you don’t lose weight for weeks at a time. This is demoralising
and the reason why most people stop any diet and start another one –
usually with the same result.

8. If you are not overweight, don’t try to lose weight

9. Get the ratios right

For the best of health and for weight maintenance research has shown that
you should try for the following ratios of the three macronutrients:

Here is a list of articles I originally posted on another thread dealing with fat in your diet...
For those eating low fat...here is an interesting article...
"A 1997 interim report published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that total fat intake, animal fat intake, saturated fat intake and cholesterol intake weren’t associated with coronary heart disease.

Then just last a month, a study published in the Jan. 4 Journal of the American Medical Association involving the same group of women in the current study reported that low fat diets were associated with only moderate and temporary weight loss – an average of 4.8 pounds after the first year, after which most of the weight was regained."FOXNews.com - Low-Fat Diet Myth Busted - Blog | Blogs | Popular Blogs | Video Blogs

Here is an article on a diet high in olive oil...
"A study conducted in the Netherlands concluded that a high-fat olive oil diet was far superior to an ordinary low fat diet in controlling levels of cholesterol. A group of forty- eight healthy adults was divided into two. Under strictly controlled conditions, half the group ate a diet high in fibre and low in fat (i.e. only 22% of calories from fat). The other half of the group ate a high fat diet where 41% of the calories came from fat and most of that fat came from olive oil. The cholesterol of the olive oil group was reduced by twenty points, whereas the control group saw only a reduction of an average seventeen points. In addition, the good-type HDL cholesterol, which helps prevent heart disease, was reduced to worrying levels in the low fat group, but was not affected in the olive oil diet group."Health benefits of adding olive oil to your diet

Here is a study on fat consumption for athletes...
"Athletes training on a high-fat diet have a healthier cholesterol profile than when they eat the traditional low-fat, high-carbohydrate training diet and they do not gain weight or body fat in the process, new data from researchers at UB have shown.

The study, thought to be the first to show this effect in women, has important implications for anyone who puts in high running mileage for health purposes. It shows they may be blunting the benefits of running by eating a diet too low in fat.

Here is some more info on olive oil (good thing I like olive oil!!!)...
"In the July 4 Annals of Internal Medicine, Ramon Estruch of the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and his colleagues report results from 770 recruits during the first 3 months of their participation in PREDIMED. People eating either version of the Mediterranean fare had lower blood glucose concentrations, lower blood pressures, lower LDL cholesterol concentrations, and fewer markers of inflammation than did people eating the low-fat diet. All these factors indicate a reduced risk of heart disease."Food for Thought: Olive Oil's Newfound Benefits, Science News Online, Oct. 14, 2006

"A fascinating new study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that dietary fat is necessary for the absorption of nutrients from fruits and vegetables. In the study, people who consumed salads with fat-free salad dressing absorbed far less of the helpful phytonutrients and vitamins from spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots than those who consumed their salads with a salad dressing containing fat."

Olive oil is considered a healthy oil because of its high content of monounsaturated fat (mainly oleic acid) and polyphenols.

There is a large body of clinical data to show that consumption of olive oil can provide heart health benefits such as favourable effects on cholesterol regulation and LDL cholesterol oxidation, and that it exerts antiinflamatory, antithrombotic, antihypertensive as well as vasodilatory effects both in animals and in humans.

Olive oil has been linked to the following health benefits:

* Lowering the risk of heart disease
* Reduction in the level of LDL (bad) cholesterol
* Lowering of blood pressure
* Decrease in blood sugar levels
* Increase in the absorption of several vitamins including A, D, E, and K
* Stimulation of the gall bladder to secrete bile, which helps to prevent gallstones
* Promotes cellular growth, speeds healing, and helps the metabolism

Olive oil is also beneficial for the skin and hair. Overly dry skin or sun damaged skin can be soothed with the application of olive oil. Some people apply olive oil to the skin to prevent wrinkles, although there is no scientific evidence to support this. Olive oil promotes shiny and full-bodied hair and a healthy scalp.

Olive oil helps with digestion and the absorption of nutrients and it helps to maintain healthy bones and prevent calcium loss.

wow, after reading some of this, I am basically doing this w/o/e and didn't even know it! But I do intermittent fasting as well, never really been much of a morning person- but glad to see more great info about how the fats aren't as evil as originally thought!

__________________[COLOR=blue]“We must [COLOR=red]BE [/COLOR]before we can [COLOR=red]DO[/COLOR], [/COLOR][COLOR=blue]only to the extent of which we [COLOR=red]ARE[/COLOR],[/COLOR][COLOR=blue]& what we [COLOR=red]ARE[/COLOR] [/COLOR][COLOR=blue]depends on what we[COLOR=red] THINK[/COLOR].” [/COLOR]

[COLOR=deepskyblue][/COLOR]Dieting is like being locked in a car w/ a madman behind the wheel & the radio tuned to static

I have in my siggy that i'm Atkins Induction level...whenever I low carb I always stick to 20g or less. I find though that my fat and protein levels are pretty consistently 70% fat...I just naturally eat this way. So my protein is about 25% and my carbs 5% or so.

Is there a reason to specifically make sure I up my carbs to the 10% recommended? I know I don't want to overeat the protein, so if I make sure my fats are high enough to avoid over-consumption of protein am I pretty much eating according to this methodology?

Thx.

__________________Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

I will post your question in one of the daily threads and see if I can get you a good answer.

My opinion based on what I read is that a carb level that low kind of gets you stuck at that very low carb level to maintain. Barry recommends more like 40-60/day. He seemed to think that 20 was a shock to the system and really didn't like induction.

__________________"And so, may Evil beware and may Good dress warmly and eat plenty of fresh vegetables." - The Tick

As long as you are eating some good veggies and dairy, you should be okay. Barry says that people can go up to 60 grams a day of carbs (whole carbs..no fiber subtracted), and this can be true for some people. Each to his own.

You are exactly right NOT to overeat protein and rely on fats for energy. It sounds like you are doing really well, just make sure you have a nice variety of foods in your diet.

I think the reason Barry allows more veggies than Atkins induction is that he knows people will get bored and might possibly overeat protein, if that's all they are having..

Now, I maybe feel like an idiot--I was looking for the other title while in the bookstore tonight. I should've asked!!! Then I would've been directed to THIS book. So they probably did have it. I guess I will go ahead and order it, as I know tomorrow and Thursday and Friday even I won't have time to go to a bookstore and look again. Silly me!

Hmmm...I'm reading this thread and thinking I may already be doing this program pretty much. Maybe I should get the book and research more. My ratios are usually 65-70% fat, 25% protein and 5-10% carb. I usually eat 20-40 total carbs per day. I did the lean mass calculations and according to that I should be eating 54-80g of protein a day. I'm wondering if I'm eating too much protein. The days I record my ****** (yeah, I'm bad I don't do it everyday!) I have anywhere from 80-100g of protein. I'm thinking I might try to keep my protein under 80 and replace with fat and maybe the weight might come off faster.

Other than sitting eating butter or oils like olive oil, or just leaving the fat on the meats(proteins); what type of foods can I eat on a daily basis that would increase the consumption of fats without increasing proteins ?

All the 'fats' I can think of are still primarily proteins

__________________[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]Laurie[/COLOR][COLOR="Red"]S[/COLOR][COLOR="Red"]omersizer since 1997[/COLOR]